Information loss and run time from practical application of quantum data compression

Abstract

We examine information loss, resource costs, and run time from practical application of quantum data compression. Compressing quantum data to fewer qubits enables efficient use of resources, as well as applications for quantum communication and denoising. In this context, we provide a description of the quantum and classical components of the hybrid quantum autoencoder algorithm, implemented using IBM’s Qiskit language. Utilizing our own data sets, we encode bitmap images as quantum superposition states, which correspond to linearly independent vectors with density
matrices of discrete values. We successfully compress this data with near-lossless compression using simulation, and then run our algorithm on an IBMQ quantum chip. We describe conditions and run times for training and compressing our data on quantum devices, and relate trainability to specific characteristics and performance metrics of our parametric quantum circuits.